Day: May 29, 2011

Ron Paul isn’t a fav for most evangelicals. As a libertarian he wants to legalize drugs, etc. He is not exactly a social conservative. But when it comes to abortion, he is decidedly against the choice to abort.

Click here to listen to his interview with Diane Rehm and then go to 28:10 in the show. He spends only two or three minutes on abortion, but that is enough to mark his position. The argument that late term abortion is rare does not stand up to the position Paul takes on principle – you can’t defend liberty if you do not have a high view of all human life.

This is not a new argument over even a nuanced take on an old argument. It is a straight forward enunciation of a principle that makes liberty possible and defensible.

Of course, there is not much nuanced about Ron Paul. The thing that is new about him is his rising popularity on college campuses, partly because of collegiate suspicion of government and consensus that people should be able to run their lives as they choose.

This is a refreshing approach after President Obama’s “above my paygrade” comments and Mitt Romney’s thrice-switched position on abortion. Abortion itself is not controversial. What makes it a controversy is the fear of politicians they will not be elected or re-elected. The first rule of politics is that the first thing in politics is to be elected. This is based on the mistaken notion that you must be elected to change America. The reality is that hearts can change, no matter who is in office. People can always say no to abortion no matter what the law is.